The Year 2000 : Y2K

As the world approached the year 2000, there were concerns over how our computers, computer programs/software, integrated systems, etc. would react to the date change from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000. As the millennium approached, many wondered if the world's businesses and financial systems would crash. Would airplanes still be able to fly or could there be nuclear accidents? Would these systems be fixed in time to avoid catastrophe?

How did this happen?

In the early days of computing the cost for memory was very expensive. The cost per megabyte of memory in 1970 was more than $3,000,000.1 In an effort to save money on memory, computer programs were written using a two digit year, assuming the "19" for the century. Storing a date in the format MMDDYY (6 bytes) rather than MMDDYYYY (8 bytes) produced a savings of 2 bytes per date stored. This may not sound like much, but consider the needs of a human resources department. The following dates are a short list (not inclusive by any means): hire date; termination date; date of last review; date of last increase; date of birth; rehire date. By only using a two digit year, there was a savings of 12 bytes of memory on these 6 dates alone.

The thought that the programs from the 1960s and 1970s would exist into the year 2000 was not conceivable at the time. Surely the programs would be replaced long before the year 2000. The problem was then compounded further when newer programs were added that needed to access existing data, thus propagating the two digit year.2 Additionally, dates were not only stored in programs, they were also in printed reports and computer screens. Personal Computers (PCs) and microchips embedded in systems all had dates and many, if not all, of them needed to be fixed!

Was this really a problem?

Many were skeptical that a real issue existed. There were early indications, well before January 1, 2000, that there would be problems. Some store computers and ATMs would not accept credit/debit cards because the expiration date on them was 003 and retailer card machines refused to process credit and debit card transactions.4 While these were minor issues, it did highlight that there could be problems on a larger scale.

What was done?

There was a lot of time and money spent in efforts to replace old systems or to correct existing programs. Contingency plans were created and system back ups were planned, just in case. Governments and companies around the world worked to correct or replace their programs in an effort to prevent the projected "catastrophe." Consultants and COBOL programmers were in high demand. In the United States, Congressional committees were established to deal with the year 2000 technology problem and the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act was passed on January 27, 1998 in an effort to promote free disclosure and exchange of information related to year 2000 readiness.5

Early estimates to fix all systems on a global scale ranged from $600 billion up to $1 trillion or more. Federal spending was estimated to reach $7.5 billion and corporate spending estimates came in at $121.96 billion.6 Final estimates globally did not appear to be as high as expected, a CNN.com report estimated the final numbers at $320 billion worldwide and $134 billion in the U.S.7 True final figures may never be known.

End of the world?

Did the world as we know it come to an end? Obviously not, we're still here! While there were "glitches" reported, most seemed to be minor or have a manual work around. Japan had two incidents at nuclear power plants, Australia had issues with bus ticket validation machines, some slot machines in the US stopped working,8 and Microsoft's display glitch with Hotmail9 were among some of the problems reported.

U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem.Will Y2K snarl global transportation? : hearing before the Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem ... on preparedness not only with respect to aviation, but also maritime, 106th Cong. 1st sess. September 30, 1999. Published/Created: Washington : U.S. G.P.O.Available online through GPO Access
LC Call Number: HG8540.I62 J3
Catalog Record: 00326402

Article/News Databases

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Y2K

Year 2000 transition

Y2K computer bug

Millennium bug

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